Lya de Putti
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 131. Photo: A. Stefano Pittaluga. Lya de Putti in Manon Lescaut (Arthur Robison, 1926).
Lya de Putti (1899-1931) portrayed vamps in German and American silent films.
Lya de Putti was the daughter of a Hungarian Baron and Countess. In 1913 she married Zoltán Szepessy and had two daughters with him. In Budapest, she began her stage career on the Vaudeville circuit and made her screen debut with A császár katonái (Béla Balogh, 1918). In 1920 she progressed to perform classical ballet in Berlin. In Germany, De Putti played supporting roles in films by famous directors like F.W. Murnau (Die brennende Acker, 1921 and Phantom, 1922) and Joe May (Das Indische Grabmal, 1921) and starred in five May-productions directed by Robert Dinesen. Her biggest hit – especially in the USA – was E. A. Duponts Varieté (1925). As Bertha-Marie she seduces and betrays the simple trapeze artist Stephan Huller (Emil Jannings) and drives him to kill his partner. She followed this success with star performances in Manon Lescaut (Artur Robison, 1926) and Junges Blut (Manfred Noa, 1926).
Adolph Zukor invited Lya to come to Hollywood. At her arrival in New York in February 1926 she told American reporters that she was twenty-two years old. Her ocean liner's records list her as having been twenty-six. Hollywood generally cast her as a vamp, such as in Sorrows of Satan (D.W. Griffith, 1926), Buck Privates (Melville W. Brown, 1928) and The Scarlet Lady (Alan Crosland, 1928). She often wore her dark hair short in a style similar to that of Louise Brooks. De Putti was rumored to be engaged to Count Ludwig Salm von Hoogstraten, a former husband of the American oil heiress Millicent Rogers, but she denied the engagement. She failed to make it big in Hollywood and left the screen by 1929 to attempt to re-start her career on Broadway. Later she went to England to make her last movie The Informer (1929, Artur Robison) and studied the English language. Soon she returned to America. She was hospitalized to have a chicken bone removed from her throat, and contracted a throat infection, followed by pneumonia in both lungs. She died in 1931 at the age of 32. Her first husband, Zoltán Szepessy, committed suicide shortly after her death.
Sources: Wikipedia, Filmportal.de and IMDb.
Lya de Putti
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 131. Photo: A. Stefano Pittaluga. Lya de Putti in Manon Lescaut (Arthur Robison, 1926).
Lya de Putti (1899-1931) portrayed vamps in German and American silent films.
Lya de Putti was the daughter of a Hungarian Baron and Countess. In 1913 she married Zoltán Szepessy and had two daughters with him. In Budapest, she began her stage career on the Vaudeville circuit and made her screen debut with A császár katonái (Béla Balogh, 1918). In 1920 she progressed to perform classical ballet in Berlin. In Germany, De Putti played supporting roles in films by famous directors like F.W. Murnau (Die brennende Acker, 1921 and Phantom, 1922) and Joe May (Das Indische Grabmal, 1921) and starred in five May-productions directed by Robert Dinesen. Her biggest hit – especially in the USA – was E. A. Duponts Varieté (1925). As Bertha-Marie she seduces and betrays the simple trapeze artist Stephan Huller (Emil Jannings) and drives him to kill his partner. She followed this success with star performances in Manon Lescaut (Artur Robison, 1926) and Junges Blut (Manfred Noa, 1926).
Adolph Zukor invited Lya to come to Hollywood. At her arrival in New York in February 1926 she told American reporters that she was twenty-two years old. Her ocean liner's records list her as having been twenty-six. Hollywood generally cast her as a vamp, such as in Sorrows of Satan (D.W. Griffith, 1926), Buck Privates (Melville W. Brown, 1928) and The Scarlet Lady (Alan Crosland, 1928). She often wore her dark hair short in a style similar to that of Louise Brooks. De Putti was rumored to be engaged to Count Ludwig Salm von Hoogstraten, a former husband of the American oil heiress Millicent Rogers, but she denied the engagement. She failed to make it big in Hollywood and left the screen by 1929 to attempt to re-start her career on Broadway. Later she went to England to make her last movie The Informer (1929, Artur Robison) and studied the English language. Soon she returned to America. She was hospitalized to have a chicken bone removed from her throat, and contracted a throat infection, followed by pneumonia in both lungs. She died in 1931 at the age of 32. Her first husband, Zoltán Szepessy, committed suicide shortly after her death.
Sources: Wikipedia, Filmportal.de and IMDb.